by Jada Lucarelli
Jewel (b. 1974) is a popular American singer and songwriter, who is known for her hit songs and singing in front of some of the most influential people like the pope and the president. Yet the path to success was not easy for Jewel, who grew up in an extremely humble beginning in Rural Alaska. Following her parents’ divorce, she moved in with her father to a house with no plumbing and heat. She grew up living off the land away from what we consider “normal” society. She and her family even currently stars on the Discovery Channel show Alaska: The Last Frontier. Jewel said that her family was musical, and in her younger years, she was always singing and yodeling. In her teenage years, she struggled, living with an alcoholic father, until she finally gained the courage at 15 to leave Alaska on her own and pursue her dreams. She won herself a partial scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and raised the rest of the money to attend by putting on benefit concerts at a local high school. It was at this academy that she learned about classical music and learned to play guitar.
Following graduation, Jewel headed to California, where her success took time. She was laid off of multiple jobs, living in a van and performing at coffee shops and small gigs whenever she could. She was 21 when her whole world changed and she signed with Atlantic Records. Her career really took off in the 1990s when her debut album Pieces of You was released in 1995. This album went on to be one of the best-selling albums of all time and went platinum 12 times over. Some of her most popular songs from this album include “You Were Meant for Me,” “Who Will Save Your Soul,” and “Foolish Games.” “Hands” was considered another one of her important songs. The lyrics of this song relate to her journey of struggle. For example, she sings:
Poverty stole your golden shoes,
It didn’t steal your laughter,
And heartache came to visit me,
But I knew it wasn’t ever after.
Jewel, 1998
With these lyrics, Jewel is singing about how life can be tough, and bad things will come, but you can never let it shut you down completely. We can connect this to her tough upbringing and struggles she was facing as a young woman. She has since been nominated for four Grammy Awards and sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
On top of her music career Jewel is also a published writer, activist, and actress. Despite her large amount of fame, Jewel has always stuck with her humbled roots and states how she always chooses her happiness over fame and uses her platform to help others find happiness as well as spread awareness on addiction and sexual abuse. She also runs an inspiring children’s foundation. She enjoys the more low-key side of stardom and does whatever she can to remain the Alaskan girl she grew up as. Her rise to success is not only inspiring because of the obstacles she overcame, but because even after multiple hardships, she never gave up like many people would. All in all, Jewel’s appearance at Geneseo is extremely significant as she came to Geneseo right in the peak of her album blowing up in the early 90s. Geneseo students who attended this concert, must look back in awe that they saw Jewel perform before she was even close to as popular as she is today. On top of this, her story was very inspiring and I’m sure many students were able to relate to her.